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UMW Political Science Professor Discusses ‘Arab Spring’ on Public Radio Show

University of Mary Washington Associate Professor of Political Science Ranjit Singh will reflect on his experience with Bahrain’s royal family in relation to last year’s uprising in the Middle East during an interview on the “With Good Reason” public radio program beginning Saturday, January 7.

From 1992 to 1993, Singh worked as a ghostwriter for one of the royal family members of Bahrain. He was allowed access to members of the royal family and got to know them on a personal level. Now, 20 years later, Singh is sharing his experiences with the man who would become the minister of information of Bahrain and a key figure in the country’s most recent uprising.

Although Singh has not spoken to the minister of information in almost two decades, he remembers a man who had a servant to start his car, had expensive collections and was disconnected from the country’s people. He told his story at an international workshop in Japan in October 2011.

Singh received a doctorate from the University of Virginia, a master’s degree in Arab studies from Georgetown University and a bachelor’s degree from Mary Washington. He is the author of several scholarly works on the Middle East, as well as frequent op-eds for local and national newspapers. A recipient of UMW’s Giving Tree Award, Singh served as an accredited international observer to elections in South Africa, Namibia, the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Bangladesh, Liberia and Afghanistan, including the 1996, 2005 and 2006 Palestinian national elections, and the 2009 presidential and provincial election in Afghanistan. He is a member of the American Center for Oriental Research, the American Political Science Association, and the Middle East Studies Association.

“With Good Reason” is the only statewide public radio program in Virginia. It hosts scholars from Virginia’s public universities who discuss the latest in research, pressing social issues and the curious and whimsical. “With Good Reason” is produced for the Virginia Higher Education Broadcasting Consortium by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and is broadcast in partnership with public radio stations in Virginia and Washington D.C.